I have frequently heard it said that prostitution is a gateway to drugs and crime. It seems to me that this is true but only because prostitution is illegal and forced to be practiced in league with other illegal activities. Through forced association, prostitution does become a gateway to other crimes.

If prostitution were legal it would be regulated like any other business. Prostitutes would be sex workers with rights and privileges, advantages and disadvantages like any other employee. There would be some crime and corruption no doubt, to the extent that there is crime and corruption in legitimate businesses not forced into association with illegal activities. Prostitution would become a service oriented business.

There are many lonely people who for one reason or another are not able to have normal relationships with benefits of sharing in a sexual way. The reasons for this may be medical, emotional, self-esteem issues, perceived social status or fear of intimacy and there there are likely many reasons I have not thought of that some men and woman might want or need this service. As citizens in a free country, I think their reasons for wanting or needing this service are none of my business. Legalizing prostitution would lessen the tax burden on the average citizen because these businesses would pay taxes and contribute to the welfare of the community by doing so. The cost of law enforcement could be reduced or the resources available to law enforcement currently be used to enforce laws against sex business could be redirected toward actual heinous criminal activities that actually DO harm to citizens such as those crimes related to violence, fraud and deception.

To further refine the title question: Why do taxpayers allow tax dollars to be wasted through criminalization of behaviors that may be deemed distasteful but that do not harm then further waste tax dollars to enforce those same laws?

It just makes sense to mind our own business, to allow people who want to provide these services and people who want to use these services the freedom to do so.